Summer conference talks

Lab members will be presenting papers and leading workshops at ISLS in Helsinki and at Constructionism in Zurich. Click for a listing.

Taking Stock of Computational Literacies

Chris Proctor and Yasmin Kafai. ISLS 2025 Pre-conference workshop on Tuesday, June 10.

This workshop will bring together learning sciences and CSCL researchers who use the computational literacies framework (Kafai & Proctor, 2021), or who study phenomena which could be conceptualized in terms of computational literacies. This workshop, co-hosted by Yasmin Kafai and Chris Proctor, aims to build a network of researchers around computational literacies who can support each others’ research, collaboratively refine the computational literacies framework, and chart an agenda for justice-oriented education amidst the rise of artificial intelligence, ascendant authoritarianism, and global instability.

Culturally Sustaining Computing Education for Tibetan Diaspora Youth: Engaging Heritage Identity Through Computing

Yeshi Paljor, Chris Proctor, Sameer Honwad, Adrienne Decker, Chris Hoadley. Full paper to be presented at ISLS 2025.

This study integrates sociocultural dimensions into computing education to support identity preservation and engagement among Tibetan diaspora youth in Queens, New York. Conducted during a 5-week summer program in 2024, the research investigated culturally sustaining pedagogies that integrate technical learning and cultural heritage. Students engaged in collaborative, project-based learning incorporating Tibetan sociocultural and political values into computing practices. Findings highlight six key themes, including pride in accomplishments, personal agency, and cultural resilience, showing how computing education can affirm cultural identity while fostering technical skills. Such integration is valuable to meaningful computing education as well as engaging and preserving their heritage identity. The study underscores the transformative potential of culturally aligned computing education to empower marginalized communities, offering a model for designing equitable, identity-affirming STEM programs that address community-specific concerns.

Engagement in computational thinking: The role of mother, father with daughters in after-school learning

Grace Xing. Full paper to be presented at ISLS 2025.

Parent-child interactions are pivotal for nurturing Computational Thinking (CT) in children, yet existing research often centers on parents with coding or STEM backgrounds interacting with one child, overlooking non-STEM parents, unique parental contributions, and sibling dynamics. This case study bridges these gaps by exploring how a mother and father without STEM backgrounds interact with their two daughters during an after-school CT program. Adopting Family System Theory and micro-analysis of video-recorded interactions, this study identified eleven shared and unique parental roles. The father uniquely acted as active observer and playful companion, while the mother displayed mediator and conflict navigator, maintainer of focus, and negotiator of autonomy. Viewing family as an interconnected system, these parental roles influenced children’s engagement and were shaped by individual and sibling characteristics. The findings affirm the importance of diverse family dynamics in creating supportive environments for CT education, with implications for parents, educators, and program designers.

Permeable media: A design strategy for Constructionist software

Chris Proctor, Yeshi Paljor, Varun Bhatt. Full paper to be presented at Constructionism 2025.

This paper introduces a design strategy called permeable media for software used in Constructionist approaches to introductory computer science education. Permeable media is characterized by three qualities: it invites learners to extend themselves into the medium, it has affordances for learners to make the medium part of themselves, and it supports learners in growing beyond the medium when they are ready to do so. This paper joins a long tradition of design for Constructionist learning environments, emphasizing two principles which have not been emphasized in the prior literature: incorporating media into one’s identity and embodiment, and support for growing beyond the medium. This paper illustrates permeable media by analyzing the design of Banjo, a software package which allows beginners to create web applications. The final sections theorize the relationship between permeable media and computational literacies and propose a research agenda based on this paper’s conceptualization of permeable media.